FÉDÉRALISME D'OUVERTURE ET POUVOIR DE DÉPENSER AU CANADA

Abstract

In power since January 2006, the leader of the Canadian Conservative party,Stephen Harper, promised to break with the previous governments’ “domineering”style of governance and to put into practice a new type of “openfederalism.” Specifically, this approach involved correcting the fiscal imbalancebetween Ottawa and the provinces, taking measures to recognize Quebec’sspecificity, and limiting the federal government’s recourse to an alleged spendingpower. This article briefly surveys the foundations of Canadian politics andthe years when the Liberal party was in power, between 1993 and 2006, toassess the measures adopted by the Harper government, particularly with respectto the spending power. This power is not attributed in the constitutionnor is it founded on clear jurisprudence, but Ottawa still claims and invokesit. Despite ther promises, the Conservatives have failed to offer a satisfactoryformula for limiting its usage. So, Canada remains driven by the centralisingprocess that has prevailed since the start of the 1980’s.

Keywords

• Canada
• Quebec
• federalism
• Stephen Harper
• fiscal imbalance
• spending power
• social union
• equalization
• transfers
• constitution